INDIANAPOLIS – It was supposed to be a joyful family vacation.
An Indianapolis grandmother, spending time with her children and grandchildren.
And it ended in tragedy.
A sudden storm blew across Table Rock Lake in the tourist hotspot of Branson, Missouri, Thursday night. It capsized a Duck Tour amphibious boat and killed 17 people on the land-water craft.
Nine of those victims represented three generations of a loving Indianapolis-area family.
The deaths and identities of the family members – including four children under the age of 10 – were confirmed by The Indianapolis Star via family members Friday evening.
"They were very loved," said Ingrid Coleman Douglas in a telephone interview.
The victims included her two uncles, aunt, cousins and their children. "It’s a huge family on all sides. It’s unimaginable. I would never have thought I would have lost this number of people this way."
Coleman Douglas said the victims included her uncles Horace "Butch" Coleman and Ervin Coleman; Horace Coleman's wife, Belinda Coleman; her cousins, Angela Coleman and Glenn Coleman; Angela's 2-year-old son, Maxwell; Glenn's two sons Evan and Reece; and his 1-year-old daughter, Arya.
Glenn's wife, Tia Coleman, and Angela's older son, whose name has not been released, survived the accident, Coleman Douglas said.
"They were on vacation," Ingrid said in the phone interview. "This is something they liked to do as a family."
Weather is believed to have caused the Ride the Ducks boat to capsize.
The storm hit the lake with 80 mph winds that caused waves 5 feet high, Capt. Jim Pulley, owner of Sea Tow Table Rock Lake said in The Springfield News-Leader.
It is believed the boat sank in 40 feet of water, rolled down in the lake and landed on its wheels in 80-feet-deep lake water.
There were life jackets on board the boat, but it's unclear whether they were used, officials said.
Tia Coleman, speaking from a hospital bed near Branson, told Indianapolis TV station Fox59 that the captain on the duck boat told tourists that they didn't need to wear the life jackets.
“My husband would want me to say this. He would want the world to know that on this boat we were on, the captain had told us, 'Don’t worry about grabbing the life jackets — you won’t need them.’ So nobody grabbed them as we listened to the captain as he told us to stay seated,” Tia Coleman said during the phone interview with FOX59. “However in doing that, when it was time to grab them, it was too late, and I believe that a lot of people could have been spared.”
Coleman Douglas said she was notified that her family members had perished early Friday morning. She said she still was coming to terms with the tragedy but spoke fondly of her uncle Butch Coleman, noting that he was on the board of the M.G.Dad's Club Youth Football League in Riverside, a neighborhood on the west side of Indianapolis.
Butch Coleman, she said, was retired from his job at UPS and coached youth league football.
"He would like for that to be out there," Ingrid said.
Coleman Douglas said the family still had limited information as to what happened but they were hoping to make arrangements to bring family members home as soon as possible.
"We may need assistance getting them back here," she said. "We have to bring nine bodies, four babies, home."
There are already several community fundraisers and GoFundMe pages created to help victims of the duck boat tragedy, but Ingrid Coleman said her family had not yet decided what they ultimately might need.
Another family member described the Coleman clan as "close-knit" and "loving."
"All of our hearts just hurt," said Kyrie Rose in a phone interview Friday night. Both Rose and Ingrid Coleman shared a recent photo of the family, which includes all the victims except 1-year-old Arya.
Rose, who preferred not to provide details about her relationship to the victims, said the two survivors – Tia Coleman and Angela's son – are doing well, and that one had been released from the hospital.
“They are doing what would be expected and still grappling with all the facts and parameters,” Rose said.
Contributing: Megan Henry
KIRO
